When I followed up for my 38 week appointment, I discussed my possible fluid leakage with my doctor. Knowing that I was already dilated and pretty well effaced, and that I was continuing to have little "gushes" of fluid that couldn't be proven as amniotic fluid unless I had the "gush" WHILE they were doing the swab to test the fluid, the doctor asked if we would like to set up a day to come in and be induced the next week. So we said yes! And so, 6 days later, on October 22, we headed to the hospital at 9pm to check in to our delivery room.
I got to the room, got my IV started and labs drawn, and was put on IV fluids and hooked up to the monitors. The nurses checked me, and I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. The doctor had planned on giving me vaginal cytotec to thin my cervix, but the nurses decided I was already too far thinned and dilated to need the medicine (which can cause too much stimulation of the uterus). So, I was told to get some rest and my pitocin drip would be started early in the morning.
I tried to sleep, but around midnight I started having really bad pain (which I quickly learned were contractions) and even thought we might not need pitocin. For about 3 solid hours, I had regular contractions. Literally like clock work! Every few minutes, lasting about 2 minutes each. I was unable to sleep while these contractions were going on, but around 3am, I fell asleep, and the nurse told me that the contractions had actually stopped about that time. So, at about 6am, my nurse started my pitocin drip. I could feel contractions from the medicine, but nothing like they had been earlier in the night. When my doctor came around at about 7:30, she broke my water. THAT. WAS. GROSS. Almost immediately after the water was broken, the contractions got HARD and frequent. I guess where the baby's head was now able to move all the way down, it really made things get intense.
I had gone into this whole situation not wanting an epidural (for no other reason than I just didn't think I wanted one), but after the water was broken and the contractions got super strong, I lasted about 3 hours, and then called my nurse to tell her I was going to need an epidural. While my labor was progressing, I was texting one of my best friends who has had 2 babies in the last 2 years, and she said that with her vaginal delivery, she tried natural labor for 10 hours and only progressed 2cm. When she finally got the epidural, she was able to relax, and dilated from 4 to 10cm in 2 hours. This really helped me to make the decision, because I didn't want to have the baby getting squished by contractions for hours on end with no progress, and also, it hurt like hell.
So, an anesthesiologist came in to start my epidural. I was having hard contractions the entire time, so it was really hard to get into the position he needed me in, and it was hard to sit still. He had to stick me FOUR TIMES to get the epidural in the right space. The first 3 times he stuck me, it was sending really weird pains up the side of my back, which he said was not normal if he was in the right spot. But finally, he got it in there, and told me "you will feel your next contraction, then the one after that will feel about half, then you won't feel any more." And he was right! It was fantastic. And the combination of pitocin and the epidural was so clutch...they could keep turning up the pitocin to get the contractions going to get me dilated, and I couldn't feel shit. I took a nap all afternoon. It was fantastic.
Around 3:30, I was having major goo gushing out of me every time I moved or had a contraction. The last time I was checked I was 9cm, so I figured I was pretty much ready to go. At this time, my doctor was in a C section, but I wasn't having any kind of urge to push, so I just hung out and waited until she could get to me.
When she was ready, my whole team of nurses and techs were ON IT. They had my bed broken down, my legs up in the stirrups, and everything in place within a matter of minutes. My husband came up to the head of my bed, my doctor came in, and it was time to rock n roll. When I finally started pushing, I still couldn't feel any kind of pain, but could definitely feel the baby moving down. I pushed for 4 contractions, during the 4th the baby's heart rate dropped into the 60s from her head being smushed, so the doctor stuck the vacuum on her head and out she came, at 4:04pm on Thursday, October 23.
Our perfect, beautiful, 7lb 15 1/2 oz, slimy gooey little Harper Snow.
Oh, and babies look 900% different a few hours after they're born. They took Harper to the nursery (along with the SIX other babies that were born within the same few hours as she was) about an hour after she was born, and she didn't come back until about 8pm. I thought I had the wrong baby (aside from the fact that she was identical to my baby pictures), because she looked so different. Above is the first picture I took of her, below is when she got back to the room.
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